Language/French/Grammar/Possessive-determiners

French Grammar - Possessive determiners

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The possessive determiner, also known as the "possessive adjective," is a grammatical element employed to indicate ownership or possession. Examples of possessive determiners include "mon," "ta," and "ses," which can be translated to "my," "your," and "their" in English.

In the English language, the selection of the appropriate possessive determiner may sometimes be contingent on the gender of the individual who possesses the item. For instance, the use of "his" suggests that the possessor is male, whereas "her" implies a female possessor. It is important to note, however, that the French language follows a different set of rules for choosing the correct possessive determiner. In French, the choice is based on the gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) of the object or entity being possessed, rather than the gender of the possessor.

⚠ The choice of determinant depends on the gender of the noun owned, not the gender of the owner; There are different forms of the determinant if the noun is plural.

Summary table of possessive determiners

First person	Masculine	mon (my)	notre (our)
	Feminine	ma (my)
	Plural	mes (my)	nos (our)
Second person	Masculine	ton (your)	votre (your)
	Feminine	ta (your)
	Plural	tes (your)	vos (your)
Third person	Masculine	son (his, her, its)	leur (his, her, its)
	Feminine	sa (his, her, its)
	Plural	ses (his, her, its)	leurs (their)

French subject	English determiners	French determiners	Examples:
je	my	mon (m) ma (f) mes (pl)	mon frère my brother ma soeur my sister mes amis my friends
tu	your	ton (m) ta (f) tes (pl)	ton frère your brother ta soeur your sister tes amis your friends
ilelleon	his, her, one's, its	son (m) sa (f) ses (pl)	son frère his/her/one's brother sa soeur his/her/one's sister ses amis his/her/one's friends
nous	our	notre (m/f) nos (pl)	notre frère our brother notre soeur our sister nos amis our friends
vous	your	votre (m/f) vos (pl)	votre frère your brother votre soeur your sister vos amis your friends
ilselles	their	leur (m/f) leurs (pl)	leur frère their brother leur soeur their sister leurs amis their friends

Possessive determiners agreement

Possessive determiners agree in gender and number with the nouns they precede:

French	English
Il a levé son verre	He raised his glass
Elle a rempli sa tasse	She filled her cup
Elle a rayé ses lunettes	She scratched her glasses

Feminine singular forms ma, ta, sa

The feminine singular forms ma, ta, sa become mon, ton, son when they immediately precede a noun or adjective beginning with:

• a vowel or
• a "silent h" ("Un h muet" in French):

French	English	BUT ⇾	French	English
ma classe	my class		mon école	my school
sa permission	her permission		son autorisation	her authorisation
ta hardiesse	your audacity		ton hésitation	your hesitation

Determiners votre, vos

The determiners votre, vos can designate more than one possessor:

• Messieurs et mesdames, votre dîner est servi !

Ladies and gentlemen, your dinner is served!

and as a polite form:

• Suivez-moi, madame, votre dîner est prêt

Follow me, lady, your dinner is ready

Video - possessive adjectives (determiners) in French (mon, ma, mes..)

A quick tutorial explaining how to use French possessive adjectives (possessive determiners).

Other chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

Other Lessons

• Intransitive Verb constructions
• Nouns which exist only in plural form
• Impersonal subject restricted to il
• Adjectives modified by adverbs and prepositional phrases
• Stressed pronouns standing alone
• Combinations of adjectives
• Degree adverbs
• Time adverbs
• Position of direct and indirect object pronouns
• Nouns which have the same spoken form but two different written forms
• Pronominal Verbs
• Use of il, ce, cela and ça as impersonal pronouns
• Stressed pronouns with même, aussi, seul, autres, tous and numerals
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Reflexive and reciprocal verbs